January 13, 2018 8:23pm ESTJanuary 13, 2018 8:11pm ESTAfter a stunning start to 2018, Alex de Minaur has put the tennis world on notice but Jelana Dokic is urging Australia not get carried away when it comes to the 18-year-old.

Joshua Thomas

Published on Jan. 13, 2018

Jan. 13, 2018

After a stunning start to 2018, Alex de Minaur has put the tennis world on notice but Jelena Dokic is urging Australia not get carried away when it comes to the 18-year-old.

Having herself burst onto the tennis scene as a teenager after upsetting then world no.1 Martina Hingis at Wimbledon in 1999, Dokic knows how heavy the weight of expectation can be.

De Minaur became the youngest Aussie since Lleyton Hewitt to reach the Sydney International final and though he fell short in the decider losing 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 to Russian Daniil Medvedev, the young man has earned plenty of praise.

With a daunting Australian Open first round clash against world no.20 Tomas Berdych awaiting de Minaur, Dokic has urged Australia not to put undue pressure on a still evolving player.

"He's very young, he's only 18 so still developing and still getting better," Dokic said on Fox Sports.

"I think it's important not to put pressure on him.

"He has done well here in Australia but now it's a bigger picture, it's the rest of the year as well.

"I understand everyone's getting very excited but I think it's important not to put that pressure on him."

While eager to quell expectation, Dokic did concede de Minaur is capable of knocking Berdych off next week.

"I think he can play a great match, I'm not sure if he can win, we'll see," she said.

"There might be an upset there.

"He's coming off a great two weeks.

"It's about letting him play tennis now. Let's not expect him to get into the second week of the Australia Open.